Leaders from the Senate and House of Representatives reached agreement on a water resources bill that includes language easing some restrictions on pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and allowing the capture of more water for storage during storms.

The legislation won praise from Western Growers, which argues its passage is critical as California enters its rainy season.

“I think this bill will certainly allow for greater flexibility in operating the pumps,” said Cory Lunde, Western Growers’ director of strategic initiatives and communications. “So in the event that we do have winter storms, we should be able to gather more of that water than we would otherwise.

“The drought language in this bill is not the end-all and be-all,” he said, “but it is a good first step toward crafting long-term solutions that will enhance the reliability of water through the Delta.”

The drought provisions come amid a far-reaching water bill that would authorize $170 million for Flint, Mich., and other cities beleaguered by lead in drinking water and $558 million in long-term authorizations to help California develop a new water infrastructure.

The bill faces sharp opposition from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who argues it would harm drinking water quality and severely weaken the Endangered Species Act’s protections of salmon and other species, The Associated Press reported.

But the legislation is backed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has negotiated off and on for several years with House Republicans on drought solutions. She said in a statement the bill is “the best we can do” under the circumstances.

“If we don’t move now, we run the real risk of legislation that opens up the Endangered Species Act in the future, when Congress will again be under Republican control, this time backed by a (Donald) Trump administration,” Feinstein said.

The National Wildlife Federation applauded provisions that authorize restoration efforts in waterways including the Los Angeles River and Lake Tahoe. But group president Collin O’Mara said the drought language “should be improved” to better focus on water conservation and reuse and wildlife protection.

Specifically, the bill includes funding authorization for 137 projects identified by Feinstein in a drought bill earlier this year. Included is authorization for the proposed Sites Reservoir, which will seek state Proposition 1 bond funds next year.

Among the bill’s short-term provisions is daily monitoring for fish near the pumps to allow for more pumping when fish aren’t in danger, allowing agencies to capture more water during storms and requiring agencies to explain why pumping is reduced to lower levels than allowed by the biological opinions for salmon and Delta smelt.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., a House Agriculture Committee member, praised the bill’s “iron-clad protections” for Northern California’s senior water rights as well as a provision assuring less senior northern water right holders that they would receive at least half their normal allocations even in droughts.

LaMalfa said in a statement the bill doesn’t go as far as he’d like in terms of reforming environmental restrictions or increasing storage. But he, too, called it a “step in the right direction.”

A vote on the bill was expected before Congress adjourns this year. The effort comes after two previous failed proposals, including last year, when months of meetings between Feinstein and House Republicans couldn’t produce a compromise.

“I think we’re in a situation where we’ll believe it when we see it, but we are optimistic,” Lunde said of the bill’s chances of passing. “We’re hopeful that this is the right vehicle to attach (drought relief) to. It’s really our last chance before the new session to get this done.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said in an interview with the Capital Press that he came away from a meeting Friday with several EPA officials “mostly frustrated.”

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has failed to keep a promise to review the agency’s oversight of grants, he said. “The administrator herself made that commitment. Nothing, as far as I know of, was done to keep that commitment.”

McCarthy said in April she would look into how the agency could exercise more control over EPA grants after being confronted at a Senate hearing over What’s Upstream, a campaign for new limits on farming in Washington.

The Swinomish Indian tribe financed the campaign beginning in 2011 with EPA funds awarded to the 20-tribe Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. The EPA’s Office of Inspector General is looking into whether the grant was illegally spent on lobbying.

With that audit unfinished, the EPA recently awarded the fisheries commission a new five-year, $25 million grant to be shared equally among tribes, including the Swinomish in Skagit County.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Newhouse told McCarthy that his meeting with EPA “raised new concerns and additional consternation.”

Newhouse said a review of What’s Upstream by EPA’s Northwest office was insufficient and that a national-level evaluation should not wait until the inspector general’s report.

“If a national review of EPA’s grant processes is premature until the completion of OIG’s investigation, why is awarding additional grant monies, of which What’s Upstream is potentially eligible, not premature?” Newhouse asked in the letter.

An EPA spokesman said the agency was working on a response. Efforts to reach a tribal official were unsuccessful.

Newhouse stopped short of calling for the entire grant to be withheld, but said the EPA should have stronger safeguards to prevent funding What’s Upstream.

“The fact that it’s still under investigation by the OIG tells me the prudent thing to do is just step back and make sure nothing has been done to break federal law before we move forward,” Newhouse said in the interview.

In a report filed with the EPA in November, the tribe described the What’s Upstream campaign as “paused.” The website remains up, featuring material developed by Seattle lobbying and PR firm Strategies 360.

The EPA says it has stopped funding the campaign and has tightened controls over how the new grant will be spent.

The EPA will preview tribal plans, and tribes will be required to submit its work to peer review, according to the grant agreement with the fisheries commission. EPA staff members questioned the accuracy of the What’s Upstream website for several years, but the agency said it couldn’t dictate changes.

Save Family Farming, a group formed to answer claims by What’s Upstream, has called for EPA to withdraw the new grant.

The EPA should wait until taxpayers can be assured the tribe won’t cite their sovereign status to spend federal grants on political activities, the group’s director, Gerald Baron, said Tuesday.

Save Family Farming has filed a complaint that the tribe violated state law by failing to register What’s Upstream as a lobbying organization. The tribe has taken the position that the Washington Public Disclosure Commission has no jurisdiction over the tribe.

The tribe spent some $655,000 of EPA funds on What’s Upstream, according to EPA records.

The tribe enlisted several environmental groups as partners. Advertising accused farmers of being unregulated polluters of Puget Sound who allowed cows to loiter in streams. The campaign’s imagery, allegations and source of funding angered farm groups and some federal lawmakers.

]]>Group accuses water allocators of depriving farm-dependent specieshttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161205/group-accuses-water-allocators-of-depriving-farm-dependent-species
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161205/group-accuses-water-allocators-of-depriving-farm-dependent-species#CommentsMon, 5 Dec 2016 14:22:28 -0500Tim Hearden
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161209941SACRAMENTO — A group of property-rights lawyers believes federal water officials are favoring salmon and Delta smelt at the expense of nearly a dozen other imperiled species that use farmland as habitat.

The Pacific Legal Foundation says sharp curtailments in federal water south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are starving protected species such as the California condor, the Southwestern willow fly catcher and the San Joaquin kit fox.

The species are often attracted to farms enrolled in federal conservation programs. Those tracts and other critical habitat have suffered because of a lack of Central Valley Project water, said Ashley Indrieri, the PLF’s community outreach coordinator.

The group is embarking on a public awareness campaign with the hope of finding landowners with the legal standing to challenge the federal water delivery policies in court, she said.

“Farmers may be affected by this if they manage part of their farm for wildlife conservation,” said Tony Francois, a PLF senior staff attorney.

“These water cutbacks affect their food resources,” he said of the species. “There’s a wide variety of people with different types of interests we’d be happy to hear from.”

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Todd Plain countered that the drought, now in its fifth year, has made it more difficult to weigh competing priorities.

“Very difficult decisions have been and continue to be made,” Plain told the Capital Press in an email. “We will continue to work with other agencies, our water users and interested stakeholders to try to make the best use of our resources.”

This isn’t the first time growers’ advocates have used an environmental argument to get more water for their farms. Rice industry leaders in Northern California have reminded allocators that their fields contribute to valuable wetlands for Pacific Flyway waterfowl and shorebirds.

About 57 percent of wetlands in the Sacramento Valley rely on rice drain water and about 60 percent of food for wintering waterfowl comes from flooded rice fields, the California Rice Commission has said.

Among the other species the PLF is citing are the Buena Vista Lake shrew, the California red-legged frog, the California tiger salamander, vernal pool tadpole shrimp and two species of fairy shrimp.

Francois and Indrieri said they don’t know how many growers enduring water cutbacks south of the Delta have habitat for these species on their farms, but they’re trying to learn that through their public outreach campaign.

The PLF’s attorneys plan to appear as guests on TV and radio shows, write opinion pieces, make speeches at forums and educational programs and widely distribute literature that details the environmental consequences of the water cutbacks.

]]>Battle lines drawn in Washington over new wellshttp://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20161202/battle-lines-drawn-in-washington-over-new-wells
http://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20161202/battle-lines-drawn-in-washington-over-new-wells#CommentsFri, 2 Dec 2016 17:34:38 -0500Don Jenkins
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161209951OLYMPIA — The Washington Supreme Court’s ruling in Whatcom County vs. Hirst could shut down rural homebuilding statewide, a lobbyist for farm groups and other water users said Thursday at a House hearing.

“The more I listen to people discuss the Hirst case, the more convinced I am that there will be no growth in the rural area unless we solve the problem,” said Kathleen Collins of the Washington Water Policy Alliance, whose members include irrigators, businesses and cities.

The House Agriculture and Local Government committees held a joint hearing to learn more about the October decision, in which the court ruled that new domestic wells can’t impair existing water rights, including river flows.

Previously, domestic wells, which account for 1 percent of water use, were exempt from such review.

Many bills related to the ruling are likely to be introduced during the 2017 session.

Some groups, including the Washington Farm Bureau, hope lawmakers will blunt the decision. Although the ruling does not threaten to curtail irrigation water rights, the Farm Bureau condemned the decision for effectively prohibiting new homes for farm families.

Environmental groups signaled Wednesday they will defend the thrust of the ruling. The groups are influential in the House, where Democrats hold a majority of seats.

“Obviously, we have to get agreement with the environmental side. I hope that’s possible,” Collins said after the hearing.

In the Hirst case, the environmental group Futurewise and others challenged Whatcom County and the state Department of Ecology. Both agencies said new wells in the county would not harm water resources.

The court, however, ruled that small withdrawals of groundwater add up and deprive rivers of water for fish, wildlife and scenery.

The ruling means prospective homeowners may have to finance expensive studies to prove their wells won’t harm existing water rights. In some watersheds, water rights include minimum river flows set in previous decades by Ecology. Critics say the flow standards are too high and create an artificial scarcity of water.

Proving a new well won’t intercept or draw water from a river may be hard to impossible. Hydrologists say that groundwater and surface waters are connected.

“Water withdrawn from groundwater does impact surface water and therefore senior water rights,” U.S. Geological Service hydrologist Matt Bachmann told House members.

“That impact is commonly too small to measure for a small domestic well, but it is not too small to measure cumulatively if you look at all domestic wells in a basin,” he said.

Environmental lobbyist Bruce Wishart said new wells could still be drilled in places where unused water rights could be purchased.

“If nothing else, there’s a final option. You can avoid impacts altogether by using a cistern, with rainwater collection or trucked-in water,” he said.

Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, said the Supreme Court ruling safeguards existing water users. “We’re trying to protect the senior rights holders, as we have done consistently,” he said.

Collins, however, faulted the Supreme Court for placing stream flows above other uses for water.

“They have lost that sense of balance. They are not looking at out-of-stream needs and how you accommodate those,” she said.

She said that not everybody wants to or can live in a city. “There is an economic force out there that requires people to live in rural areas,” she said.

]]>Northern California&#x2019;s wet pattern to continue in Decemberhttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161202/northern-californias-wet-pattern-to-continue-in-december
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161202/northern-californias-wet-pattern-to-continue-in-december#CommentsFri, 2 Dec 2016 15:56:57 -0500Tim Hearden
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161209955SACRAMENTO — The fast start to the rainy season in Northern and Central California has a good chance of continuing in December, long-range forecasters say.

The federal Climate Prediction Center foresees chances of wetter-than-average conditions in much of the Golden State through at least the middle of the month, and the whole month could produce above-average rainfall in far Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

“The long-range outlooks are starting to advise that we could see a pattern change and go into a more stormy pattern,” said National Weather Service warning coordinator Michelle Mead, adding that a series of storms could begin around Dec. 8.

What happens after New Year’s Day, however, is more difficult to predict, she said. The climate center’s three-month outlook sees equal chances of wetter- and drier-than-normal conditions for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, while central and southern California could remain dry.

The outlook follows generous amounts of rain in Northern California over the last two months, pushing many areas above their normal precipitation totals for the water year.

Since Oct. 1, Redding has sopped up 12.7 inches of rain, well above its average of 6.76 inches, and Sacramento’s 5.84 inches of rain exceeded its normal 3.12 inches for the period, according to the National Weather Service.

The rain has helped with pasture regrowth in the foothills without interfering too much with table grape and other harvests, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Sheep have been grazing on alfalfa and inactive farmland while many ranchers are still providing supplemental feed to cattle, NASS reports.

However, the state’s snowpack is still rather meager, at 59 percent of its normal snow water equivalent statewide and 82 percent of normal in the northern Sierra Nevada, reports the state Department of Water Resources.

Reservoirs are a mixed bag. Shasta Lake, the centerpiece of the federal Central Valley Project, is at 64 percent of its capacity — above normal for this time of year.

But Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s main reservoir, has only 69 percent of its normal water for this time of year and is only 42 percent full, the DWR reports.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows improving conditions in Northern California but still extreme to exceptional drought across the southwest part of the state.

“We’ve already lucked out and had two of the five to seven atmospheric rivers we normally get in a year, but they were across Northern California,” Mead said. “We still need these storm systems to shift a little south so we can spread the wealth. We definitely don’t want to have too much up here and have minor flooding when we’ve still got drought in the south.”

Among the 34 past winters with neutral or weak La Nina atmospheric conditions, the majority were drier than normal throughout California, Mead and other officials warn.

November rainfall

Here are the November and seasonal rainfall totals and comparisons to normal for selected California cities, according to the National Weather Service:

Thursday’s closure prohibits the launch or removal of any boat, dock or other structure from either reservoir that could potentially transport mussels, said Mark Wolcott, the incident commander of the rapid response team created to address the issue.

The restrictions are needed to prevent the spread of aquatic mussels to other uncontaminated water bodies, Wolcott said. They will remain in effect until the reservoirs ice up.

The boating restrictions were approved late Thursday by the directors of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Independent Record reports.

The closure announcement came a day after Gov. Steve Bullock declared a natural resources emergency over the presence of the larvae of invasive aquatic mussels in the Tiber Reservoir. Further analysis is being done after suspected positive tests were obtained at Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the Milk River below Nelson Reservoir and the Missouri River near Toston.

Bullock’s declaration freed up $750,000 in state special funding to address the issue.

No adult mussels have been found so far. However, response team member Bryce Christiaens said officials are operating under the assumption that adults are present.

The team is contacting experts in other states to determine if lowering reservoir levels could help control the spread of the mussels. Doing so would also would make it easier to search for adult mussels that might be left dry by receding water, officials said.

]]>California&#x2019;s new water conservation plan focuses on citieshttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161202/californias-new-water-conservation-plan-focuses-on-cities
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161202/californias-new-water-conservation-plan-focuses-on-cities#CommentsFri, 2 Dec 2016 09:29:53 -0500 ELLEN KNICKMEYERand SCOTT SMITH http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161209964FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — California officials crafting a new conservation plan for the state’s dry future drew criticism from environmentalists on Thursday for failing to require more cutbacks of farmers, who use 80 percent of the water consumed by people.

Gov. Jerry Brown ordered up the state plans for improving long-term conservation in May, when he lifted a statewide mandate put in place at the height of California’s drought for 25-percent water conservation by cities and towns.

Ben Chou, a water-policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, criticized state planners for not mandating any new water-savings by farm water districts.

“There’s been a huge difference all along in what urban water districts have been required to do and what ag water districts are required to do” regarding conservation, Chou said.

Under the governor’s order, state agencies this week released the plan for a long-term water diet for California. They anticipate climate change to cause the Sierra Nevada snowpack — one of California’s largest sources of water — to decline by half by the end of the century.

The plan includes creating customized water-use limits for urban water districts, so that arid Palm Springs, for example, would have a different amount of water budgeted than foggy San Francisco. City water districts would have until 2025 to fully set and meet the budgets, and risk state enforcement if they fell short.

Other changes for urban water districts in this week’s proposal include a new focus on fixing leaks that drain away upward of 10 percent of processed water. And cities and towns would be required to draft contingency plans for droughts up to five years, up from the current requirement for a three-year supply of water.

But critics say the plan does little to address California’s $47 billion agricultural industry, which leads the nation, growing nearly half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables produced in the United States.

Diana Brooks, head of water efficiency at the Department of Water Resources, which oversees farm water use, said the proposal would require agricultural water district managers to keep better track of how their water is being used, and better think through possible steps for saving water.

“The idea that agriculture is standing still is absolutely false,” said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition. “We know there’s a shared responsibility that we all have to do our part.”

Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state Water Resources Control Board, one of the agencies involved in the planning, said that rather than dealing with each drought when the crisis hits, California is becoming more efficient at a reasonable pace.

“We’re just trying to be smart for the future ... and do it in the fairest way,” Marcus said. “It is a big change in thinking.”

After taking public comment, officials expect to adopt the plan in January.

The current drought encompassed the driest four-year spell in state history, devastating some rural communities and many native species. A rainy fall this year has lifted the north of the state out of drought, but not the agriculture-heavy center and populous south.

New regulations and laws would be required to carry out some of the plan. The proposal leaves many of the details of carrying out conservation proposals to be worked out.

Some water and conservation experts, however, praised the state’s effort to make water conservation a way of life in California, given a changing climate.

Lester Snow, a former top state water regulator who has weathered droughts from the 1970s on, said each drought boosts the state’s water efficiency in some way. A house built today, for example, uses half as much water as a house built in the 1980s.

The meeting is one of 15 being held around the region by federal agencies to get input on the operation of the hydropower dams on the Columbia-Snake River system, a process initiated by a federal judge handling a lawsuit brought by dam removal supporters.

It’s critical that agriculture, especially the wheat industry, makes its concerns known during the public comment period, said Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Director Blaine Jacobson.

“The dams are absolutely crucial to the health of the Idaho wheat industry,” he said. “Wheat is a global market and it’s a very competitive market and if we have to rail it to Portland, it would make a number of the growers uncompetitive on the world market.”

The U.S. district court judge earlier this year ordered the federal agencies that operate the Columbia-Snake River hydropower system to review all reasonable options for operating it in order to minimize the impact on endangered salmon.

That decision came in response to a lawsuit by conservation groups in favor of breaching the dams to improve salmon runs. They challenged the biological opinion for operating the system and the judge required the agencies to update the environmental impact statement on how the system is operated.

The agencies are holding scoping meetings around the Pacific Northwest to gather public comment and a draft environmental impact statement on the system’s operation is expected to be published for public comment in 2020.

Breaching those dams would make the rivers unnavigable for barges that move wheat and other products to port for export.

According to the Port of Lewiston and Northwest River Partners, about 10 percent of all U.S. wheat exports move through the lower Snake River dams and more than 50 percent of Idaho’s wheat is exported through the Columbia-Snake River system.

In addition, more than 42 million tons of commercial cargo valued at more than $20 billion moves through the system each year and 60 percent of the energy produced in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington is generated by the rivers’ dams.

Jacobson said it’s almost inconceivable that the dams would be removed but a vocal minority that supports that is making their voices heard and it’s important the agricultural industry also weigh in on the issue.

“I think the facts are on the side of keeping the (system) the way it is,” he said. “But if the silent majority doesn’t turn out and lets the vocal minority rule the day, then it will be bad for the entire PNW.”

North Idaho farmer Eric Hasselstrom said that without the ability to use the river system to transport wheat to port, his transportation costs would likely double.

“If we lost the dams, I don’t think we’d be competitive and in business any more,” he said. “We have to have our voices heard because there are going to be a lot of comments against (the dams).”

Comments must be received by Jan. 17 and can be submitted by email to: comment@crso.info

]]>New fund helps removal of Western damshttp://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161130/new-fund-helps-removal-of-small-dams
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161130/new-fund-helps-removal-of-small-dams#CommentsWed, 30 Nov 2016 09:44:34 -0500Dan Wheat
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161139991Dam removal projects in Oregon, Washington and California are receiving money from a new fund set up by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for dam removal and river restoration in the West.

The foundation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., marked its 50th anniversary on Nov. 29 by announcing a $50 million grant to the Resources Legacy Fund to establish the new Open Rivers Fund.

It is the largest fund dedicated to supporting local community efforts to remove obsolete dams and restore rivers.

During the next 10 years, the Open Rivers Fund will support dam removal, related river restoration and infrastructure modernization. There are more than 14,000 dams across the country identified by engineering experts as high hazard, according to the foundation.

“Once communities come together and agree to remove a dam, there is often little money available,” said Larry Kramer, foundation president.

Open Rivers Fund inaugural grants are:

• $215,000 to help with removal of a series of small dams and obstructions in Oregon’s Rogue River basin.

• $175,000 to help with removal of Matilija Dam in Ventura, Calif.

• $75,000 to assist in removing Nelson Dam in Yakima, Wash.

Economic and environmental benefits have led to broad community support for the removals which help fish habitat, according to the foundation.

The Rogue River basin work builds on the removal of Gold Hill, Gold Ray and Savage Rapids dams, already accomplished and resulting in free flow of the river for more than 150 miles.

The new work addresses several other river impediments including removal of the 5.5-foot Beeson-Robinson diversion dam on Wagner Creek in the Bear Creek sub-basin, near Talent, Ore.

Beeson-Robinson serves 19 irrigators but blocks upstream fish movement. A diversion channel will serve the irrigators when the dam is removed.

Matilija Dam is 160 feet tall and has a 7,000 acre-foot reservoir 90 percent filled with sediment on Matilija Creek, a tributary of Ventura River and 15.6 miles upriver from the Pacific Ocean, according to the Hewlett Foundation. The dam’s sediment trapping contributes to ocean beach erosion and has made it ineffective for its original purpose as water storage for agriculture. The dam also blocks steelhead spawning habitat. Local groups have been working toward removal.

Nelson Dam on the Naches River near Yakima is 8 feet tall, 190 feet long and is owned by the city. Its diversion serves orchards and city residences.

Removal and consolidation with two downstream diversions into one new diversion structure will cost about $8 million, mainly funded by city bonds and other grants, said Joel Freudenthal, senior natural resources specialist for Yakima County.

The changes will benefit fish and will increase diversion flow for irrigators from the 35 to 40 cubic feet per second range to about 57 cfs, Freudenthal said. The Naches-Cowiche Canal Co., which also receives water from the diversion, supports the project. Work will hopefully start in 2018, he said.

]]>Supreme Court asks US government&#x2019;s view on mine spill suithttp://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161129/supreme-court-asks-us-governments-view-on-mine-spill-suit
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161129/supreme-court-asks-us-governments-view-on-mine-spill-suit#CommentsTue, 29 Nov 2016 09:24:33 -0500 DAN ELLIOTT http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129899DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court asked the Justice Department on Monday to weigh in on New Mexico’s lawsuit against Colorado over a mine waste spill that polluted rivers in both states and in Utah.

The court asked the Office of the Solicitor General to submit the Obama administration’s views on the lawsuit. The solicitor general represents the executive branch in Supreme Court cases.

The federal government has a stake in this case because a work crew supervised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accidentally triggered the 3-million-gallon spill from the Gold King Mine while doing preliminary cleanup work in August 2015.

The EPA estimates that 880,000 pounds of metals flowed into the Animas River in Colorado, including arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. It turned the water bright orange-yellow.

The chemicals flowed into New Mexico and Utah and passed through the Navajo and Southern Ute Indian reservations. The EPA said water quality quickly returned to pre-spill levels.

New Mexico sued Colorado in June, saying Colorado should be held responsible for the contamination as well as decades of toxic drainage from other mines.

New Mexico and the Navajo Nation also sued the EPA. Those lawsuits are pending.

Utah officials are considering a lawsuit against the EPA. Dan Burton, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General’s Office, said Monday that they haven’t reached a decision.

Utah also hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit against Colorado, he said.

Mark Pino of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office said state officials hope for a quick resolution to their lawsuit against Colorado.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman was pleased the justices asked the solicitor general to present the government’s view because of the EPA’s involvement, spokeswoman Annie Skinner said.

The EPA has added the Gold King and other nearby mine sites to the Superfund list and is researching cleanup alternatives. A temporary water treatment plant has been removing pollutants flowing from the Gold King Mine since October 2015.

]]>California tallies snow, rain from weekend stormshttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161129/california-tallies-snow-rain-from-weekend-storms
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161129/california-tallies-snow-rain-from-weekend-storms#CommentsTue, 29 Nov 2016 09:15:50 -0500 JOHN ANTCZAK http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129901LOS ANGELES (AP) — California had vital snow on Sierra Nevada peaks Monday and positive rainfall totals registered for many areas after a stormy autumn weekend up and down the state that hopes to avoid a sixth consecutive year of drought conditions.

In the Sierra, where the annual snowpack functions as a reservoir for much of the state’s water supply, storms over Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks dumped 19 inches of snow at Lodgepole and 16 inches at Grant Grove, the National Weather Service said.

Southern California mountains also saw snow accumulations, including 5 inches at Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino range, where two ski areas began limited operations. To the west, Mountain High ski area in the San Gabriel Mountains planned to open Tuesday.

“Not a bad way to end November,” the Hanford weather office wrote on its web page.

When the 2016 water year ended on Sept. 30, the state Department of Water Resources characterized it as a “snow drought,” with most of California’s precipitation falling as rain and not much of it overall.

What snowpack there was melted early in the spring due to record warmth and was substantially absorbed by soil before reaching the state’s huge storage reservoirs.

Where it didn’t snow over the long Thanksgiving weekend, the storms brought measurable rain almost everywhere, boosting hopes for a turnaround in the state’s drought outlook.

San Francisco has now received about 4.5 inches of rain since the start of the new water year on Oct. 1, putting the city about a half-inch above normal to date.

“This is the greatest amount reported for the start of the water year since 2010,” the local weather service office said.

In the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, Fresno, Madera and Merced were also at above-normal precipitation levels.

Some points, such as the far northwest coast, are extremely on the positive side. Eureka has received 17.51 inches of rain since Oct. 1, more than 10 inches above normal to date. A year ago the Humboldt Bay city had barely more than 6 inches by this time.

In the south, rainfall amounts so far this water year have also shown improvement.

Downtown Los Angeles has received 1.4 inches of rain, just .17 inch below normal but more than three times the .46 inch that had accumulated a year ago.

After five years of drought, November brought the unfamiliar sight of rain ponchos in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on back-to-back weekends for home football games by the NFL’s Rams and the University of Southern California Trojans.

The rains came although forecasters have said the presence of a weak La Nina, the periodic cooling of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean, is likely to suppress precipitation in Southern California.

As of last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed most of the state still in various stages of drought, although the area with the worst conditions has shrunk and California’s northwest corner is no longer in a drought.

Cold and dry weather is in the immediate forecast, with likely widespread overnight freezing in the San Joaquin Valley late this week, the NWS said.

Forecasters noted some possibility Thursday night into Friday for a Mono wind event — northeast winds that blast down the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and into the foothills — as a low-pressure system moves over the Great Basin. The winds are known for toppling trees.

]]>Initial state water allocation set at 20 percenthttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161129/initial-state-water-allocation-set-at-20-percent
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161129/initial-state-water-allocation-set-at-20-percent#CommentsTue, 29 Nov 2016 08:47:11 -0500http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129907SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dozens of water agencies in drought-weary California may only receive 20 percent of their requested deliveries in 2017, state officials said Monday.

But the Department of Water Resources initial allocation forecast is double that announced a year ago.

Officials said winter storms in coming months may boost the first 2017 allocation, but point out California’s deep drought lingers.

Initial allocations almost always change. The 10 percent allocation ultimately gave way to a 60 percent allocation for 2016.

The rainy season has had a strong start with snow in the Sierra Nevada and rain in parched Southern California. But officials point out that one wet year won’t make up for the long drought.

“October’s storms and subsequent rainfall have brightened the picture, but we could still end up in a sixth year of drought,” said Mark Cowin, director of the Department of Water Resources. “Our unpredictable weather means that we must make conservation a California lifestyle.”

Much of October’s heavy rainfall was soaked up by the state’s drought-dried soil, although water from subsequent storms will increase runoff into streams and reservoirs, the department said.

The State Water Project supplies 29 public water agencies — from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California — that serve nearly two-thirds of California residents and irrigate nearly 1 million acres of farmland.

The drought has left California reservoirs at or near record low levels, and the water shortage has caused farmers to rely heavily on pumping groundwater.

]]>Settlement prompts company to line leaky stretch of canalhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161128/settlement-prompts-company-to-line-leaky-stretch-of-canal
http://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161128/settlement-prompts-company-to-line-leaky-stretch-of-canal#CommentsMon, 28 Nov 2016 11:06:40 -0500John O’Connell
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129922ABERDEEN, Idaho — The Aberdeen-Springfield Canal Co. has installed a buried, plastic liner along a leaky, mile-long reach of its main canal in the Moreland area.

General Manager Steve Howser said the project, completed Nov. 15, lies within the second leakiest reach of the main canal.

The recently lined mile lost water at a rate of 75 cubic feet per second when he diverted 1,000 cfs. The loss translated into 150 acre-feet of water per day or 30,000 acre-feet during a typical irrigation season.

An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to flood a football field 1 foot deep.

Howser explained he prioritized the stretch because it had a gravel bottom, making it far easier to line than reaches over basalt rock.

About half of the savings will be from storage water, buying the system’s irrigators an added five days of reservoir water during peak irrigation season. Natural flows saved by the liner will benefit users downstream.

Howser said the project was necessary to help his system cope with an irrigation shift in response to the 2015 water call settlement between the Surface Water Coalition and junior groundwater irrigators. He anticipates 15,000 to 17,000 acres that have been irrigated with wells but also have canal rights will return to his system as shareholders seek to meet mandatory groundwater reductions.

Howser said the lining project should enable his system to serve an added 10,000 acres. By next fall, he also plans to finish lining another adjacent mile upstream, which should save enough water to irrigate 20,000 acres.

“We’re saving this water so in subsequent seasons as we start to see acres come back on the canal, we’ll have a sufficient water supply in storage to serve them,” Howser said.

The company hired a contractor to assist in excavation but used its own employees and equipment for most of the labor. The plastic liner is 30 millimeters thick and came in 300- by 128-foot panels that were welded together and buried 2 feet deep. The vendor warranties buried liner for 25 years.

Howser said the project cost $420,000, but the company received a $178,000 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant. Howser said he was surprised to get the grant, given that his staff hydrologist had a short time frame to complete the paperwork and initially considered the effort to be practice for the next grant cycle.

The cost of the next reach will be about $400,000. Howser said he has enough material on hand to complete a third of the second phase next spring, when he also plans to line some lateral canals, where seepage consistently impacts 200 adjacent acres and ruins production.

In response to the anticipation of increased demand resulting from the water call settlement, Howser’s board conducted a mile-by-mile water-loss assessment of the system, which includes 200 miles of main canal and lateral canals. The assessment concluded the company loses 650 cfs system-wide, or roughly 60 percent of its nominal diversion rate.

]]>Panel taking comments on how it will judge Prop 1 projectshttp://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161125/panel-taking-comments-on-how-it-will-judge-prop-1-projects
http://www.capitalpress.com/California/20161125/panel-taking-comments-on-how-it-will-judge-prop-1-projects#CommentsFri, 25 Nov 2016 10:26:20 -0500Tim Hearden
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129936SACRAMENTO — A state commission is taking another round of comments on its plans for judging large water storage projects that will apply next year for Proposition 1 bond funds.

The California Water Commission has issued a third draft of its regulations related to the $2.7 billion for reservoirs and other storage projects set aside in the $7.5 billion ballot measure voters passed in 2014.

People will have until Dec. 7 to comment on the latest documents, which describe what is required of project applicants and how the commission will compare the public benefits of proposed projects.

A final draft will be presented to the commission at its Dec. 14 meeting, spokesman Chris Orrock said.

“We’re looking mainly at what the public benefit ratio is of the project,” Orrock said. “Speaking in general terms, if a project cost $100 and $50 of that were to create new public benefits ... that would be a great public benefit ratio.”

“This program is very specific,” Orrock said. “Each of the projects that are applying will have to show a measurable improvement to the (Sacramento-San Joaquin River) Delta. You don’t see that a lot out there.”

Projects can benefit the Delta by providing more cold water that would aid the salmon run while flushing out pollutants and intruding saltwater, he said.

Proposition 1 would fund no more than half the cost of a project, and at least half of that funding would need to go toward ecosystem improvements directly related to the Delta, he said.

The comment period comes as project proponents are gearing up for their applications. Backers of the proposed $3.6 billion Sites Reservoir near Maxwell have lined up 34 agency participants, and supporters of the proposed $2.5 billion Temperance Flat Reservoir near Fresno have formed the San Joaquin Valley Water Infrastructure Authority to plan its application.

Other suitors could include sponsors of the planned expansion of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County as well as groundwater improvement projects near Delta tributaries.

The water commission is set to take applications from project sponsors in the first half of 2017, determine the eligibility of projects late next year and determine funding in the spring of 2018, according to the agency’s website.

The Boise-based regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited is part of a movement that recognizes the wildlife and water-supply benefits of flood irrigation, and the need to make certain it continues to be used in floodplains and other strategic locations across the West.

Ironically, his efforts to preserve flood irrigation often tap the same federal dollars that help farmers install high-efficiency pivots, which threaten to render flood irrigation obsolete.

The attraction for Colson and others is that flood irrigation, with its leaky canals and standing water, helps recharge shrinking aquifers and provides migratory birds with a stopover on their annual pilgrimages between the Arctic and points south.

Unlikely partnerships of agricultural landowners, conservationists, government officials and water managers are behind efforts to keep farmers flooding fields in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. During the past year, Colson estimates the movement has maintained flood irrigation on roughly 4,000 acres across the West.

“For 15 or 20 years or more, the conservation community has been telling people how wasteful flood irrigation is and convert to sprinkler,” Colson said.

Farmers have relied on flood irrigation — using gravity to spread surface water across fields — for thousands of years.

Since the late 1960s, however, growers have been moving away from flooding in favor of more efficient sprinklers. On average, 120,000 acres in 11 Western states were converted from flood irrigation to sprinklers annually between 1995 to 2010, according to a study of U.S. Geological Survey water-use data.

Conservation funding sources, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program under the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, have long supported sprinkler conversions with water-efficiency grants.

But the pursuit of efficiency has had unintended consequences. Migratory wading birds feed in flood-irrigated fields, which have provided an artificial alternative to the natural marshes lost to river damming. And Western aquifer levels have dropped in correlation with the disappearance of flood irrigation — historically a major source of incidental aquifer recharge.

In Idaho’s Eastern Snake Plain, for example, officials say the aquifer has been dropping by 200,000 acre-feet per year on average, due to increased groundwater use and reduced flood irrigation.

Zola Ryan, NRCS district conservationist in Harney County, Ore., says her agency’s goals of improving irrigation efficiency and preserving flood irrigation needn’t be at odds.

Ryan explained efficient sprinklers are ideal for irrigators using groundwater, and watering where benefits of flooding aren’t as pronounced.

“There is a place and time for flood irrigation and a place and time for sprinkler irrigation,” Ryan said.

Colson and his colleagues have been working to understand — and ultimately address — the reasons growers opt to stop flood irrigating.

Often, the problem is the cost of replacing dilapidated head gates or improving canals. Some producers say flood irrigation is simply too labor intensive.

“We’re working with some vendors to develop automated infrastructure, where they can sit in their truck and use their cell phone and open the valves (to flood irrigate),” Colson said.

In Eastern Oregon, Ryan explained many growers quit flood irrigating in the early 1980s, after widespread flooding damaged canals. New wells and sprinklers are becoming increasingly common, she said.

However, NRCS has since 2014 set aside $300,000 a year for a special EQIP program to preserve flood irrigation for benefits to migratory birds in Oregon’s Harney and Lake counties. A half-dozen projects are in the planning stages, Ryan said.

Lake County rancher Joe Villagrana will finish NRCS-funded improvements to retain flood-irrigation later this month. But he’s been working with partners to upgrade his flood-irrigation infrastructure for most of a decade, initially with help from Ducks Unlimited. Villagrana said he’ll soon have the ability to evenly flood irrigate 2,200 acres of meadow grass pasture, and both grass production and water fowl numbers have already risen dramatically on his land.

Without the help, “I probably wouldn’t have done near what I’ve done, and I would have done it over 20 years,” Villagrana said.

In Northern California, Ducks Unlimited regional biologist John Ranlett has tapped U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds to help several ranches install pipelines to better deliver water for flood irrigation. Ranlett has also overseen the replacements of weirs — shallow dams across rivers that regulate water levels entering flood-irrigation canals.

“If their infrastructure starts to fail, they’re going to lose the ability to irrigate,” Ranlett said. “Then all of a sudden you lose habitat.”

A couple of years ago, Tim Brockish considered installing an irrigation pivot that would replace failing flood-irrigation infrastructure serving a 40-acre field he owns near Rexburg, Idaho.

Then he learned about the plight of the white-faced ibis — a migratory wading bird known as a “marker bird” by people in the Rexburg area, as its presence marks flood-irrigated fields.

Brockish explained that one of the world’s largest ibis breeding colonies utilizes nearby Mud Lake and Market Lake, and the birds forage in flooded fields by day. The supply of flooded fields, however, is running thin, causing problems for the ibis and other migratory birds in one of the continent’s most critical “staging areas.”

More than a decade ago, experts discovered migratory birds were stopping for a few weeks along the Snake Plain in Idaho and in Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Northern California to feed on insects and grass seed from flood-irrigated fields before heading north to breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska. Malnourished birds often won’t breed.

Ultimately, Brockish chose wildlife over improved irrigation efficiency, partnering with the Teton Regional Land Trust to upgrade his flood system. He obtained a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant to replace metal head gates, rebuild canals and build a dike to hold flood-irrigation water longer on the field,

Sal Palazzolo, private lands program manager at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said preserving the staging area is a goal of both his agency and Ducks Unlimited, which have a plan to help water fowl by working with the state’s managed aquifer recharge program. Managed recharge involves intentionally injecting surface water into the aquifer to rebuild groundwater levels.

IDFG and Ducks Unlimited have asked the Idaho Department of Water Resources to design its recharge sites to be more like marshes, spilling shallow water over hundreds of acres rather than deep water over a smaller area.

“We’re definitely looking into that,” said Wes Hipke, IDWR’s recharge coordinator, who also sees the potential to combine resources with wildlife organizations on future recharge efforts. “It’s going to have to be on a case-by-case basis.”

IDWR has also agreed to study the potential for a managed aquifer recharge site at the Market Lake Wildlife Management Area.

Palazzolo said efforts are underway to establish a separate EQIP fund in Idaho for flood irrigation projects, and NRCS is mulling an Eastern Idaho water grant under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program that would cover flood-irrigation infrastructure.

Like many producers in his area, Teton County Farm Bureau Federation President Stephen Bagley stopped flood irrigating his ranch in the southern end of Idaho’s Teton Valley during the 1960s.

Now, Bagley is a leader of a coalition working to restore flood irrigation to the valley as a means of resolving a water shortfall that’s becoming increasingly critical.

Groundwater levels have dropped 55 feet in the valley since the 1970s — before flood irrigation was phased out in favor of sprinklers and neighborhoods sprang up on farmland. Miles of unlined canals went unused that had previously recharged the aquifer with water losses exceeding 40 percent.

As a result, surface irrigation rights that once remained in priority through late July have lately been shut off at the beginning of the month.

In December of 2015 irrigators hoping to improve their own water outlook partnered with Farm Bureau, local cities and counties, Friends of the Teton River, Teton County Soil and Water Conservation District, Water District 1, the Henry’s Fork Foundation and others to form the Teton Water Users Association.

The association is pursuing funds to rebuild flood-irrigation infrastructure, which irrigators will use to flood pastures within their existing water rights during peak spring flows. When flows subside, they’ll resume using only efficient sprinklers. The water they bank through canals and flood irrigation should emerge from springs about three months later, when it’s needed most, extending the irrigation season, cooling the river for native Yellowstone cutthroat trout and replenishing dried marshes.

“Hopefully, I’ll have another week or two of irrigation because they won’t have to call for my water as fast,” Bagley said.

Driggs, Idaho, grower Wyatt Penfold said operating margins are razor thin in the valley, and saving a couple weeks of costly storage water from reservoirs would be a huge benefit.

“The only way to keep the lifestyle we’re all used to is to work together,” Penfold said.

Rob Van Kirk, senior scientist with the Henry’s Fork Foundation, has modeled the Teton Valley hydrology, calculating the association must increase annual aquifer recharge by 30,000 acre-feet to meet its goal of restoring water levels to 1975 conditions. The association will soon conduct an assessment of priority sites on which to restore flood irrigation.

Sarah Lien, an attorney for Friends of the Teton River, said the program’s ultimate goal is to apply about 260 cubic feet per second of water from April 15 through June 15.

The project has been awarded a $50,000 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART grant to cover preliminary planning. They also have a pending $250,000 grant application with the Idaho Water Resource Board, which would provide matching funds to tap additional federal grants.

“The surface water every year is gone sooner and we’re more reliant on groundwater,” said Driggs, Idaho, Mayor Hyrum Johnson, who considers the association to be a template for other Western water users to follow. “I believe this organization is a great example of the way that water rights can be managed proactively around the state.”

]]>Invasive mussel may have shown up in Missouri Riverhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161123/invasive-mussel-may-have-shown-up-in-missouri-river
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161123/invasive-mussel-may-have-shown-up-in-missouri-river#CommentsWed, 23 Nov 2016 09:37:13 -0500http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161129951KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — Preliminary testing has indicated that an aquatic invasive species may have moved into the Missouri River.

The Daily Inter Lake reports that additional lab work is needed to confirm the detection, but preliminary results from a water sample taken south of Townsend may indicate there are mussel larvae south of Canyon Ferry Reservoir in the Missouri River.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Greg Lemon said Monday that additional testing is needed to confirm whether the larvae were from zebra or quagga mussels, two species if invasive mussel known to aggressively multiply, causing costly damage to aquatic ecosystems and infrastructure.

The finding comes after mussel larvae were confirmed for the first time in Montana waters at Tiber Reservoir two weeks ago.

]]>Sociologists to study water settlementhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161118/sociologists-to-study-water-settlement
http://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161118/sociologists-to-study-water-settlement#CommentsFri, 18 Nov 2016 13:59:49 -0500John O’Connell
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119865POCATELLO, Idaho — A team of sociologists is embarking on a long-term study of the precedent-setting 2015 water call settlement between Idaho’s Surface Water Coalition and junior groundwater users.

The Idaho State University researchers hope their findings will provide insight to help water users in other regions resolve differences without litigation — a rare feat in water management. They also plan to follow the strategies farmers attempt to reduce their water use, and how those changes impact their operations.

The team includes Katrina Running, an assistant professor of sociology specializing in the environment and climate change; Morey Burnham, a research assistant professor of sociology; and Kathleen Shipley, a sociology graduate student who will study the issue for her thesis. They plan to study the issue for five years.

“It’ll have a broader interest outside of Idaho,” Burnham said. “As other places try to make these decisions, hopefully they’ll be able to learn from this.”

The Coalition filed its water call more than 11 years ago, based on declining spring flows into the Snake River from Blackfoot to Milner Dam, attributed to increasing junior well use.

Well users, represented by Idaho Ground Water Appropriators Inc., had been providing varying amounts of annual mitigation water to the Coalition based on seasonal conditions, but water was becoming increasingly difficult for IGWA to lease during dry years.

The settlement — lauded as a groundbreaking approach to water management — seeks to restore spring flows to their average fill from 1991 to 2001 in 10 years, and will measure progress based on levels in 19 sentinel wells. In addition to providing a flat amount of annual mitigation water and facilitating conversions from groundwater to surface water, groundwater users are required to reduce their collective water consumption by an average of 240,000 acre-feet per year.

The agreement left it up to the individual groundwater districts to establish rules for farmers to meet the reduction. Districts have taken a variety of approaches to lessen the burden for growers — such as planning pipelines to replace groundwater with surface water and injecting surface water into the aquifer to offset members’ use.

Burnham said the situation sets up a “natural experiment,” allowing his team to compare the different approaches.

Running believes the settlement offers a case study in “how stakeholders and actors with different interests reach an agreement and how they decide what is fair.” She’s also interested in how participants’ power and influence shaped the agreement, as well as potential environmental ramifications.

Shipley has a unique perspective among her team members. Her husband runs a small farm in Aberdeen and is bound by the settlement.

She said the project evolved from interviews she helped conduct two summers ago about the connection between farmers and the ecosystem.

“Water came up over and over,” Shipley said.

The research positions of Burnham and Shipley were both funded by the National Science Foundation’s Managing Idaho Landscapes for Ecosystem Services grant. The team plans to apply for an additional NSF grant that would be specific to the settlement study.

Sensors that can show a grower the level of soil moisture, plant water use and weather impact in different areas of the farm can make an operation more efficient, they say.

But growers first must “address fundamentals,” making sure their basic hardware such as drip lines are working correctly, and consider any challenges they might face, said Bob Coates, a University of California-Davis engineer.

“A big point to make is that there’s no perfect technology solution,” said Coates, an associate development engineer in the university’s Biological and Agricultural Engineering division. “Each growing situation is unique.

“With any technology, the overall goal is to use water, nutrients and labor more efficiently,” he said.

Available technology to determine the water needs of crops has evolved from simple pressure bombs, which are sort of like blood pressure meters for leaves, to newer sensors that can provide information on an index of plant stresses in real time, Coates said.

Soil and plant sensing technology can make it easier for the grower to divide the farm into segments for scheduling irrigation, fertilization and other tasks. That’s a key benefit for farms that have varying types of soil, Coates said.

Growers should first determine the kind of data they need, advises Jack Coots, regional director of Farm Data Systems Inc. Equipment can range from single-point sensors to soil moisture probes that include more than one sensor on a rod, to a system of sensors that use radio signals to provide real-time information on soil moisture, plant water use, weather and other factors.

“All of this stuff is really great, but none of it will work if it isn’t installed properly,” said Coots, adding that growers should consult an expert. “Installation is the most important point.”

In new orchards, producers should have the ability to change the depth and location of probes as tree roots grow, he said.

Coates’ and Coots’ advice came during a presentation on soil moisture sensors and ag technology Nov. 16 at the inaugural North State Precision Ag Expo and Farm Business Forum. The workshop sought to teach growers how to prepare for technology adoption and how to use the data to make informed management decisions.

The information from sensors and telemetry won’t take the place of human intuition, the two experts noted. For one thing, the technology has limitations, including obstructions such as hills or trees that can interfere with radio signals.

In some areas, growers that are considering using a web-based program to organize data will have to depend on cellular service if there is no broadband available, and it can be spotty.

And mishaps can occur, such as a harvester running over a sensor.

“It does not work 100 percent of the time,” Coots said. “I would set your expectations to consider some down time.”

When purchasing equipment or setting up a program, a grower should ask the dealer about the ability to add on to the system or change features later, Coates said. Technology is changing rapidly as more and more choices become available, and prices are coming down, he said.

]]>Officials reassess impact of roads, trails on bull trouthttp://www.capitalpress.com/Timber/20161118/officials-reassess-impact-of-roads-trails-on-bull-trout
http://www.capitalpress.com/Timber/20161118/officials-reassess-impact-of-roads-trails-on-bull-trout#CommentsFri, 18 Nov 2016 08:41:24 -0500 KEITH RIDLER http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119884BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Federal officials are reconsidering how roads and motorized trails in part of the Sawtooth National Forest could harm threatened bull trout following a lawsuit by an environmental group.

As a result, a federal judge on Wednesday put a lawsuit by WildEarth Guardians on hold until Feb. 14 while the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analyze how motorized travel and climate change could harm critical habitat for bull trout, a torpedo-shaped fish that needs clear, cold water to survive.

Environmentalists say bull trout can be harmed by roads that block off sections of streams and isolate populations. Roads can also be a source of sediment entering streams.

The lawsuit filed Sept. 30 says that the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010 designated 15 streams and their tributaries as critical habitat in the Fairfield Ranger District in south-central Idaho.

The lawsuit contends the federal agencies are violating the Endangered Species Act by not consulting to make sure use of motorized vehicles in the forest doesn’t harm bull trout following the critical habitat designation.

The group initially sent a letter in July of its intent to sue within 60 days. The Forest Service responded on Sept. 22 saying it had reinitiated consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service about roads and the vehicles’ impact.

The environmental group went ahead and filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30, and on Oct. 11 the Forest Service sent a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service confirming it had started the process the environmental group sought.

“By agreeing to reconsider past motorized use decisions, the Forest Service can begin to heal the national forest landscape scarred from decades of road building,” WildEarth Guardians attorney Marla Fox said in a statement.

An attorney for the U.S. Forest Service, Christine England, said the agency had no immediate comment.

Specifically, the lawsuit contends the Fairfield Ranger District Travel Plan hasn’t been analyzed following the Fish and Wildlife Service’s bull trout critical habitat designation. Such an analysis is required under the Endangered Species Act to make sure motorized travel doesn’t jeopardize bull trout and its habitat.

The federal agencies have agreed to update the court every 30 days on progress made on consultations regarding the travel plan.

Bull trout evolved with salmon after the last ice age and preyed on young salmon and salmon eggs, and still do in some areas. But bull trout have declined along with salmon, and they were listed as threatened in the lower 48 in 1999. Bull trout now only occupy about 60 percent of their former range, which currently encompasses Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.

Threats to the cold-water species, experts say, include warming water caused by climate change, isolated populations, interbreeding with non-native brook trout, and competition for food from non-native lake trout introduced as a sport fish both legally and illegally from other North American waters.

The court this week affirmed a decision by a state hearings board to deny an aquaculture permit for the 5-acre site along Henderson Bay near Gig Harbor.

The Kitsap Sun says the appeals court found the proposed farm would harm eelgrass, a fragile marine plant.

Olympia-based shellfish company Chelsea Farms had proposed installing about 56,000 plastic tubes planted with geoduck, a large clam that fetches high prices in Asia.

The Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat, a citizens group, petitioned the Shorelines Hearings Board to intervene after Pierce County approved the farm’s permit in 2013. The hearings board found that the buffers the county approved for the farm wouldn’t adequately protect eelgrass.

Chelsea Farms President Kyle Lentz says his dad started the project 14 years ago and “no one would have predicted it would end this way.”

]]>Idaho Power works on river restorationhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161117/idaho-power-works-on-river-restoration
http://www.capitalpress.com/Idaho/20161117/idaho-power-works-on-river-restoration#CommentsThu, 17 Nov 2016 09:20:03 -0500http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119900MELBA, Idaho (AP) — Idaho Power is working to improve water quality and habitat in parts of the Snake River upstream from dams in Hells Canyon.

The Idaho Press-Tribune reports that the utility recently wrapped up a project to deepen a stretch of river and plant more than 18,000 trees near Walter’s Ferry and other efforts in different parts of the river are expected.

Idaho Power spokesman Brad Bowlin says the Walter’s Ferry project and others are part of the utility’s commitment to improving water quality in the river system. They also are required in order to receive a federal license to operate dams in the Hells Canyon Complex.

Idaho Power operates three dams in the complex, which accounts for about 70 percent of the utility’s hydroelectric power generation.

]]>Drought in Northeastern U.S. expected to persist through Februaryhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161117/drought-in-northeastern-us-expected-to-persist-through-february
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161117/drought-in-northeastern-us-expected-to-persist-through-february#CommentsThu, 17 Nov 2016 09:17:50 -0500 MICHAEL CASEY http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119901CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) — The long-running drought in much of the Northeastern United States is expected to persist through the winter.

The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday shows dry conditions continuing through February throughout New England and the only relief coming in parts of upstate New York, where some drought-stricken areas could see improving conditions.

The drought is the worst seen in more than a decade. It has been devastating to farmers and resulted in water restrictions in many places. It has dried up drinking wells and dropped lake levels.

Drought also is expected to persist in much of the Southeast, the Southwest as well as parts of the Midwest and California.

The money will be used by Idaho Department of Water Resources to assess the possibility of using surplus water to address aquifer stabilization and sustainability issues in the Treasure Valley of southwestern Idaho.

A lot of studying of water and aquifer issues in the Treasure Valley has already been done, said Wesley Hipke, IDWR’s recharge project manager.

But this study “will bring it all together to show how much water is available, where it is available and when it is available,” he said.

Hipke said there are a lot of thoughts and ideas about where recharge efforts might or might not work in the valley, “but I’ve not seen a lot of data to back that up. That’s the intent of the study.”

Hipke said he is a strong proponent of recharge — “I think it’s an extremely effective water management tool” — but water managers need to know a few main things before proceeding with any recharge efforts in the Treasure Valley.

That includes how much surplus water exists, whether there are places recharge will work to build the aquifer up and whether the surplus water can get to those places.

“Let’s get some good, solid data on how much water is available, where it’s available and when it’s available,” Hipke said. “That’s what this study is looking at.”

There are about 8,000 farms in the Treasure Valley area, almost a third of the state’s total farms.

Hipke said the study will rank the top areas for doing recharge and determine what it will take and how much it will cost to develop the necessary infrastructure.

He expects work on the study to begin within five months and take about a year to complete.

Two senate concurrent resolutions passed by the Idaho Legislature this year supported efforts to stabilize the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, including earnestly developing the capacity to recharge 250,000 acre-feet of water into that aquifer annually.

A third senate resolution directed the water board to implement aquifer stabilization projects in other parts of the state.

Much of the state’s focus on aquifer recharge efforts has been in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, but “the ESPA is not the only place in the state that is having water struggles” and it’s important to address those other aquifers as well, said Sen. Steve Bair, the retired Blackfoot farmer who introduced the resolutions.

The Treasure Valley aquifer is a complicated one with fluctuating water table levels, Bair said.

“We have to spend the money to get those studies under our belt so we fully understand how that aquifer functions,” he said.

]]>Fallout over water ruling heats up in Washingtonhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20161116/fallout-over-water-ruling-heats-up-in-washington
http://www.capitalpress.com/Washington/20161116/fallout-over-water-ruling-heats-up-in-washington#CommentsWed, 16 Nov 2016 08:47:02 -0500Don Jenkins
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119914OLYMPIA — Several senators criticized Tuesday a recent Washington Supreme Court decision that threatens to halt home building in farm communities and said they will try to counteract the decision in the upcoming legislative session.

The 6-3 ruling in Hirst v. Whatcom County in October struck down the routine approval of new domestic wells. It also gave the 2017 Legislature another major battle along rural and urban lines.

The issue of whether wells can be drilled in places not served by waterlines has “bumped its way to the top of our list,” said Moses Lake Republican Judy Warnick, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Development Committee.

The committee was briefed on the ruling by the Department of Ecology and others. Domestic wells statewide are responsible for 1 percent of water consumption, and Ecology said new wells for single-family homes were OK in Whatcom County.

The high court, however, agreed with the environmental group Futurewise and other plaintiffs that cumulatively new wells could cut into existing water rights, including minimum stream flows for fish.

The ruling jeopardizes home building statewide. Prospective homebuilders may have to prove to county building departments that their wells won’t harm other users, a potentially expensive and difficult undertaking for residents and counties.

The Washington Farm Bureau and other groups have condemned the decision for dashing the dreams of rural homeowners.

Ecology water resources manager Dave Christensen told the committee that the agency has been receiving dozens of calls a day from worried residents. “Landowners are upset and concerned,” he said.

Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, said the Hirst decision would force people to live in crowded cities.

“That’s really not the life a lot of Washingtonians want to have, but that seems to be the end goal of what’s happening here,” he said.

Futurewise state policy director Bryce Yadon said in an interview that the group wants to protect senior water rights, not end rural homebuilding.

The Hirst decision, he said, “doesn’t shut down rural development. It just makes sure it’s not occurring in inappropriate areas because there is no water.”

Yadon said lawmakers could help rural homebuilders by setting up a process for finding water for new wells. “It’s a great area for the Legislature to step in,” he said.

The session was tilted heavily toward nullifying the ruling with legislation. Warnick said she expects a long and complicated battle once the session begins.

“I think they (environmental groups) are probably more than pleased about the decision,” she said. “We’re looking at less than 1 percent of the water usage. It makes wonder. It really does.”

Futurewise was founded more than 25 years to support the state’s Growth Management Act. One of the group’s goals is to concentrate growth in cities, according to its website.

Whatcom County Executive Director Jack Louws said county officials are hearing from people who spent their savings on land and hoped to build.

“I want you to know the calls are heart breaking,” he told senators.

]]>Farmers offer comments on Columbia-Snake River Systemhttp://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161115/farmers-offer-comments-on-columbia-snake-river-system
http://www.capitalpress.com/Water/20161115/farmers-offer-comments-on-columbia-snake-river-system#CommentsTue, 15 Nov 2016 12:33:26 -0500Matw Weaver
http://www.capitalpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2016161119923Some wrote by hand. Others wrote on a computer. Some had other people write it down word-for-word.

Still others will send an email or a letter outlining their thoughts on the Columbia-Snake River System.

The public has many options to tell the federal government about the river system, and all of them were on display in Spokane during one of 15 scoping meetings to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration collect comments for an environmental impact statement on the dams.

“We’re asking the public to come in and look at what we’ve outlined, which is how we currently operate, and say, ‘Does this look right?’” said Rebecca Weiss, program coordinator for the corps. “Is there something else that we’re missing in the system that’s important to you that you want us to look at?”

The meeting drew farmers and ranchers, as well as critics of the river system and its dams.

The dams are on track to achieve 96 percent average dam survival for young spring chinook and steelhead and 93 percent for young summer-migrating fish, according to the BPA.

The river system has the most fish since Bonneville Dam was built in the 1930s, according to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. In 2014, more than 2.5 million adult salmon and steelhead passed the dam, setting new overall record levels since counts began in 1938. The sockeye, fall chinook and coho posted record or near-record runs, including Snake River stocks. The dams on the Snake River do not block access for fish.

Paul Gross, farmer with the Spokane Hutterians in Reardan, Wash., wanted to know more about water control for three pump sites on the Spokane River.

“Any time they change the elevation, it affects us,” Gross said. “The price of wheat is half of what it was two years ago. We’re already below the cost of production, so any time you make it harder for me, I’m just going to go broke faster.”

It’s important for farmers and ranchers to contribute comments, said Colfax, Wash., rancher Tom Kammerzell, a commissioner for the Whitman County port district.

“This is up close and intimate to everybody in this region, and affects us more than anybody,” Kammerzell said. “You can make a decision, but you can’t make it without all the facts, not the cherry-picked facts.”

Deadline to comment is Jan. 17. Two webinars will be offered at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pacific Time Dec. 13 on the project website.